a narrative adventure in spirituality

Posts Tagged ‘God’

“Trinity gives us a fuller picture of God. Yet – whether Speaking Creator God hovering over the waters, Son of God rising from the dead, or Holy Spirit descending from heaven with a rushing mighty wind – there is still an element of mystery. Trinity reminds us we will never know all there is to know about God.”

“I can’t help but notice a distinct pattern in this relationship between Creator and creation. The Creator keeps showing up, again and again, unwilling to let creation go. So we celebrate His arrival as a Middle Eastern baby. We celebrate His return from the dead. We celebrate His arrival as Spirit. This Creator seems willing to show up anywhere at any time. This is a persistent God. It is clear He is unwilling to give up on us.”

It is my best guess that your opinion of the Supreme Court is related to the decisions they make regarding cases that you have an interest in. If that is true, you may have some strong opinions about the court at this time. Whatever you may think about it, the court has ruled to legalize same-sex marriage. My best guess is that some feel this is a step of progress. And that others feel it confirms the decay of culture. No matter your opinion, we are given opportunity to explore some important issues.

Much discussion has already taken place about this, plenty more will follow. I hope that future discussion realizes that the Supreme Court did not arrive at this decision simply to please or anger you. Nor did they attempt to define what marriage looks like in the church. No government body is even capable of this. This becomes difficult for us because for so long we have seen marriage in the sight of God and these witnesses as synonymous to marriage recognized by the state. Because of this, it may shock some when the state recognizes marriage that the church may not (I suppose the opposite of this is also true). Yet, the state has never decided what relationships the church will recognize as marriage.

The state may disagree but the church is not subject to the state. We are subject to a different King. Government does not become God when it makes decisions that we disagree with. No matter where government stands on any issue – Jesus is risen! Although we have long appreciated and enjoyed religious freedom, we do not want to be fooled into thinking that our battle is taking place in the culture wars. To have our feet in two kingdoms at once is not where we are called to be.